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For she looked a girl, despite her sombre garments, and there was a certain timidity in her manner which strengthened this impression. Lord Hurdly offered her a seat, and then took another, facing her. "In engaging yourself to marry Horace Spotswood," he began, deliberately, "you have made the supreme, if not the irreparable, mistake of your life."
But if his love had been so slight that a few months of absence had cooled it, and of so poor a quality that a new caprice had taken its place so soon, she was well rid of it. That this had been so the letter which Lord Hurdly had shown her sufficiently attested, and she must guard herself against the folly of sentimental regrets. It was not Horace that she regretted.
Since she had become interested in her new pursuits he observed her more closely than ever, and on the morning of the publication in the papers of the special additions to the famine fund which contained her own subscription Lord Hurdly, with apparently no reason at all, read the list aloud to her across the breakfast table.
As it curved her lips alluringly, Lord Hurdly felt himself touched with the sudden sense of her powerful charm. No one else on earth would have dared to say this to him, or anything remotely comparable with it. There was something very piquant to his jaded palate in the flavor of this audacious speech. Instead of scowling, therefore, he smiled.
She could not help feeling that she had been harshly treated. It was not the actual loss of money that she minded; it was the slight implied thereby. She had married Lord Hurdly without any pretence of loving him. He had not required that of her; and she had done her best to maintain her position as his wife in accordance with his wishes.
It was addressed to Lady Hurdly, at Kingdon Hall, and was in these words: "Kindly remain and act for me until I can arrive. Unavoidably detained here. This direct message from the young lover who had once been so near to her life moved Bettina to strange emotions. She was aware that Mr.
I wanted some one to make a handsome figure as Lady Hurdly. I expected that you would do that, and you have not disappointed me." "If this is true, I'm glad to know it," she said; "but, at any rate, you could not blame me for not giving you the love another woman might have given you. I never deceived you as to that.
Was not the present Bettina, the slightingly treated widow of his cousin, a very different being as different as was the present Lord Hurdly from that old and outgrown other self? Surely the change in both was great a change which she construed as absolutely to her own disadvantage as it was to his advantage. Yet, in spite of this, that letter brought a strange strength to her heart.
You may determine as you choose, but what will it avail if I determine not to touch a penny belonging to either the late or the present Lord Hurdly? You are very careful of the dignity of your position. I must also look to mine, which you seem strangely to have forgotten." His expression showed her plainly that these words of hers had cut deep into his consciousness.
"You may feel quite at ease on that score, I assure you," Lord Hurdly answered, in his cold, incisive tones. "He received the money, and has probably used it for the furtherance of these ridiculous and sentimental schemes of his. This should give you the gratifying assurance that he has been bettered, and not worsted, by reason of his connection with you."
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